


Not Much of a Choice

by timetravelingpalmer



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, This isnt like overtly romantic, and im high key darhkatom trash so this is gonna have to pass, but it like hints at stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 12:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15908481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetravelingpalmer/pseuds/timetravelingpalmer
Summary: After Nora escapes prison Ava seeks Rays help to try and find her. Ray agrees, but under a few conditions





	Not Much of a Choice

**Author's Note:**

> hey!!
> 
> i'm like real hype to post this because i ran out of steam with it like three months ago and i didn't think i would pick it up again but i finished it and i'm like kinda proud of it!!
> 
> (ps. BIG THANKS TO @unwittingcatalyst FOR BETA READING AND BEING SUPER COOL AND HELPFUL

Usually when something went awry at the bureau it could be traced to something the Legends did. So, when Nora Darhk was found absent in her cell it was not hard for Ava to put two and two together, which led her to the bridge of the waverider looking for a certain scientist.

 

Her presence on the waverider was no longer cause for alarm like it used to be, now that Sara had given her a reason to come that wasn’t to only to berate the legends for their latest plunder. It was almost expected to see Ava walking down the halls, often out of proper bureau attire.

 

She stalked down the hall making her way to the lab.

 

Ray looked up from his work when he heard someone enter. “Ava! What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

 

Deciding to skip pleasantries, Ava jumped right to what she really came to discuss. “This morning guards brought Nora her breakfast for the day only to see that she had mysteriously disappeared. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?” She asked this completely knowing what the answer would be, she just wanted to give Ray a chance to explain himself.

 

His eyes widened and his mouth dropped slightly before correcting itself. An obvious tell.

 

“Well I... uhh. I wouldn’t know anything about that no. Wow- that’s really- real strange. Looks like we- we’ve  got a real mystery-“

 

Ray continued to stutter and mumble over his words until Ava, who knew the answer to the question before she even asked, interrupted and put him out of his misery.

 

“Because from the security footage it looks like she used that rock, the one that multiple guards saw you give to her, and vanished.” 

 

Ray kept his eyes glued to the floor. 

 

“I may have done something like that.”

 

Ava pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers and sighed. “Well now we have to find her.”

 

“We? Wouldn’t this be under the Bureau’s jurisdiction?”

 

“Yes, it would but a, this is your fault and b, I may not know Nora very well but she’s not an idiot. If she’s on the run she’s gonna know how to keep herself hidden and considering you seem to have some connection with her, you could give some insight.”

 

“So you want me to help find Nora so you can put her back in jail?”

 

Ava thought she had made this clear. “Yes.”

 

A stormy expression crossed over Rays face, something that didn’t usually occur. “Absolutely not.” There was almost no harshness in his tone but it lacked his usually cheery demeanor, which by Rays standards was a slap in the face.

 

Ava rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe she thought that Ray was the reasonable one. She was also starting to think that no one on the ship was the reasonable one. Although, deep down she knew this was a long shot. She knew that he would never hang Nora out to dry like this but she had hoped (emphasis on hoped) that there was any chance that he would agree.

 

But still, she challenged him, raising her eyebrows sternly (a move she had learned kept Bureau agents in line). “No?”

 

“I would love to find Nora, to check on her and make sure that she’s okay, but I’d rather have no clue where she is then put her back in jail. And I’m definitely not going to take advantage of the tiny bit of trust she might have in me to do it.”

 

Ava sighed, rubbing her temples. “Ray, we’ve been through this.” They had. Ever since Nora was taken into Bureau custody Ray had never failed to bring up that the grounds of her arrest were unjust, seeing as she didn’t even get a trial. Ray didn’t even seem to think that Nora was guilty of anything in the first place. Ava had tried to explain that things were much more complicated than they seemed and she couldn’t do whatever she wanted but Rays only reaction to that was the very true argument of ‘But you’re incharge’.

 

“No we haven’t.” Ray shot back. “We haven’t ‘been through’ anything. I’ll talk but then you just shut me down.”

 

“Ray-” Ava was tired of discussing this. Partly because she knew that Ray had a point, but what he didn’t understand was that being in charge doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want. How could she be seen as a good leader if she didn’t punish people who broke the laws that the organization was founded on. Not everybody could afford to be as chaotic as the Legends.

 

Not to mention that Nora was still a threat to time itself. Ava can’t just go on Ray’s claim that she’s reformed and won’t travel through time by ripping holes through it. She knew Ray always thought the best in people and that he had a stubborn streak, but when they were mixed together they were deadly. There really was no way to convince him that Nora may not have any good left in her. This had Ava questioning why she had come to Ray in the first place.

 

“Nora’s been a the vessel for a demon over half of her life, you really think that wasn’t punishment enough?” Ray was reaching the end of his rope with this. The first few times they have had this same talk he had at least tried to be civil but Ava had gone too far. “Also, you thought I would actually agree to this? I’m trying not to be offended but I hoped that you thought a little better of me at this point.”

 

She knew getting his help would be a long shot, but she didn’t think he’d go as far as to take offense. If he had made the choice to find her, Ava wouldn’t think less of him. She looked at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”

 

“Nora’s been betrayed by everyone in her life. I would never add myself to that list.”

 

Ava stayed silent this time. She had hit a wall. A wall she hoped to tear down, but still loomed over her.

 

Ray could tell he made his point, maybe to a much farther extent than he had originally meant to. “I know it would make the Time Bureau look bad to not punish the person who nearly caused the destruction of time, but it wasn’t her. She was possessed, it’s Mallus to blame. Also, when did people start going to jail for breaking time anyway?”

 

“Since forever, Ray!”

 

“Well, I hate to break it to you but not even two weeks ago I blew a hole in the Berlin Wall and broke everything. So, I guess you’re gonna have to lock me up too.”

 

“Oh my god.”

 

Ava was seriously starting to think that this would be easier if she did it herself, but she knew there wasn’t a chance in hell she could find Nora. Even if she could find her there’s no chance that she would even have the chance to reason with Nora at all, which wasn’t exactly the plan but her arrest would be easier if she wasn’t in witch mode.

 

Luckily, or possibly unluckily, she wasn’t sure yet, Ray seemed to have an idea.

 

“What if I find her and bring her back here? I know it’s not prison, but you’ll at least be able to keep tabs on her, and isn’t that why you need her back in jail?”

 

Ava considered it for a second. She wasn’t sure that putting Nora on the Waverider would lessen the amount of possible damage to time but she had grown used to fixing the tears the Legends caused. It was also the best offer she was going to get from Ray, and honestly, what she probably expected. If Nora was here it would be one less thing to worry about.

 

“Fine. If you find her she can come live on the Waverider but-”

 

Before she could finish Rays eyes opened much wider and a smile spread quickly across his face. “Really?”

 

Ava knew she was going to regret this, but what the hell? “Yes.”

 

Ray broke out into peals of “thank yous” and “I’ll get started right aways” as Ava made a turn to leave.

 

God, she was so screwed.

 

——————

 

After much convincing to the team, they finally agreed to help Ray try to find Nora. He thought making the deal with Ava meant that Nora would be living in the ship soon, but it turns out Ray's word meant close to nothing if Sara wasn’t on board as well.

 

For her case, Sara brought up irrelevant points such as “she tried to kill us all” and “she is literally a demon”. To which Ray said, “That’s water under the bridge” and “technically she was only a vessel”

 

Even though she still had reservations, that Ray didn’t blame her for having, Sara agreed to let Nora stay on the ship if she was found. A decision that Ray could tell that she was not happy about making and honestly just didn’t want Ava’s work to become a living hell trying to look for Nora.

 

Aside from the fact that she was Damien Darhks daughter (which made Sara distrust her for obvious reasons), Ray could tell she also didn’t think there was a chance Nora could change and be a better person.

 

Nate was probably the most upset on the ship. Not because of someone coming on board, but because of someone leaving. After Amaya left the ship he hadn’t been in the best of moods and finding a person who didn’t want to be found in time wasn’t easy.

 

Everyone had already gone to sleep on the third day of their search and Nate’s hair was reaching concerning levels of messy.

 

“Are you sure you don’t know about anywhere she would go? She didn’t say anything about where she would leave to?” He asked for the fourth time that day.

 

“Nope.”

 

“You realize you are not giving me a lot to go off of here?”

 

“Yep,” Ray said. The search had gone on for days and they were both at their wits end.

 

Which is why the next words to come out of Gideons speaker system were a godsend.

 

“It seems as though time quakes are coming from New York in 1926.” The robotic voice said. “A string of unsolved thefts has sprung a war between crime rings causing much more danger than before.”

 

Nate moved to one of the screens to look at the documents pulled up by Gideon. “Looks like someone had been stealing money from the Genovese crime family and they seem to think it’s their competitors trying to sabotage them, even though they deny it.” He chuckled, “Well, this sounds like her.”

 

Ray bit his tongue. The team had spent the last few days taking turns jabbing at Nora’s criminal past. He was tired of it. (and considering that half of them were criminals he found it more than a bit hypocritical.)

 

“Gideon, is there any leads as to who actually stole it?” Ray asked, hoping this would be it.

 

“There are descriptions of a girl who worked at the Genovese cover operation that do match Eleanor Darhks appearance.”

 

“Yes! When was the earliest one? We wanna find her before things get too messy.”

 

Nate chimes in, “Looks like it was September 14th 1923.”

 

—————————————-

 

The Genovese cover was a small but lavish jazz club. To anyone else it would display nothing but a fun night out but Ray knew better. Both the excitement of seeing Nora again and he underlying anxiety of being surrounded by criminals kept him on high alert as he surveyed the area.

 

Zari stood next to him at the bar. The team thought it was best that she accompanied him for back up and the fact that she was the only other person on the team Nora would possibly trust.

 

Zari was excited but apprehensive. She had met the same scared girl Ray did but she wasn’t sure that he was right in thinking that Nora could turn over a new leaf. She wanted to believe in her like he did but she was scared Ray had his head in the clouds, that he would trust her too much and would end up getting hurt. If anyone could help her it would be Ray but she just didn’t want to see him destroy himself in the process.

 

“So where’s your girl Ray?”

 

“She’s not ‘my girl’ and I’m not sure. She should be here any minute now.”

 

As if on cue Ray saw a strikingly familiar face wearing a (probably stolen) waitresses outfit and carrying a burlap sack, walk out of the back room and make a beeline for the back alley door.

 

He got up and turned to Zari. “Will you stay here for a second? Just to give me a second to talk to her?”

 

“Ray-” Zari was about to object before he interrupted.

 

“If we just take her without so much as a conversation it’s going to just seem like she’s getting arrested all over again.”

 

Zari wanted to say ‘well isn’t she?’ but the earnest look in Rays eyes made her hold her tongue. “Fine, but use your comms if things start to go south.”

 

Ray makes a move to leave but Zari put a hand on his arm and stopped him. “Nothing stupid.”

 

He nodded. “Nothing stupid.”

.

\---------------------------------------------

 

When he looked out in the alleyway he saw her skirt flutter behind a corner and ran forward in her direction.

 

Ray finally caught up to her and he reached forward, barely able to catch her jacket between his fingers. “Nora-”

 

Before he could get another word out she shook him off. She turned around and let a wave of magic shove him to the ground. A look of realization settled on her face as her eyes met his.

 

“Ray?”

 

“Hey,” Ray winced as he sat up. “Nice to see you too.”

 

Nora looked apologetic for a moment before steeling herself. As she helped him back to his feet she said “You shouldn’t go around scaring people like that.”

 

It only took her a moment to realize there was something wrong with this picture. Her eyes turned defensive as she took a step back and put her hands up to attack. “What are you doing here?”

 

“It’s not what you think.” He tried to take a step forward but she just took one more back.

 

Nora was ninety-nine percent sure it’s exactly what she thought. Her tone turn accusatory. “What, so Sharpe didn’t send you? You aren’t here to take me back?”

 

Ray faltered. “Yes and no?”

 

Nora thought she should run but she was still holding on to hope that his intentions weren’t what she thought. “Ray-“ she started.

 

“I’m not letting her put you back in jail.”

 

Ray said it so firmly Nora almost believed him, but even she knew when she escaped that it would be a matter of time before she ended up back in that cell.

 

“Then why are you here?”

 

“Ava and I struck a deal.”

 

“Oh really?” In Nora’s experience deals were never good. Maybe it’s because the last one she made landed her with a demon in her head of twenty years, but upon hearing these words she became more cautious. Her eyes wandered the musty alleyway look for an exit route and she felt magic rush to her finger tips. She didn’t want to hurt Ray, but even more so she didn’t want to end up back in jail. He had helped her, given her the time stone when he could have turned it in the Director Sharpe just as easily, and there was no way she was going to let him take that back.

 

“She said that if I found you that you could live in the Waverider.” He blurted it out fast, scared that she was going to leave if he said a single wrong word.

 

Nora continues to test the waters. “So, what I’m supposed to join up with the A team?”

 

“I mean ideally yeah.” He shrugged.

 

“And if I say no?”

 

“Well, Ava wants me to bring you in regardless.”

 

Nora rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t seem like I have much of a really choice do I?”

 

“I know it’s not fair.” He took a step closer, his voice softening a tad as he pleaded with her. “You can finally live your life without Mallus and it’s not my place to take that chance away from you. The Waverider will still be a prison if you aren’t there willingly.”

 

“If you know all of that then why are you here?” She was waiting for him to cut to the chase.

 

“If you don’t want to come with me I’m not going to make you. I can go back and pretend none of this happened, say you used your magic and fought me off, that you time traveled again and we have to start our search from square one.”

 

She believed he was being truthful now, that he really meant the words he was saying. She knew that Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes Palmer wouldn’t even joke about lying if he wasn’t being serious. Maybe she would look back and regret ever trusting him but right now it was the only thing that felt right, actually the only thing that had felt right for a long time.

 

“You say that as if they would believe you. Last time I checked you can’t lie.” She smirked and crossed her arms.

 

He laughed back at her and put up his arms in surrender. “Hey I could try! Or you could actually fight me off and it wouldn’t be a lie.”

 

“Is that really an offer?” Her voice was more light hearted than she had remembered it being anytime recently. “Because I might have to take you up on that.”

 

“God I hope not cause you could definitely kick my ass.”

 

“Trust me Palmer, if that was going to happen it would have happened a long time ago.”

For a moment it almost felt like Nora was talking to a friend. Which is something she is unfamiliar with because she’s not certain she’s ever really had one in the last twenty years. Ray’s as good of a start as any.

 

A voice cut in, coming from Rays comms that put a halt to their conversation. “Ray did you find her?”

 

“That’s Zari…” He trailed off looking back up at her. “So what’ll it be?”

 

He asked it so innocently it was hard to believe that it was such a life changing question, and the truth is Nora didn’t know how to answer it.

 

She didn’t have a plan after this. She made a stop in 1920’s New York because she knew it was a hotbed of crime. She could steal things she needed before going somewhere else safe while being undetected (which apparently didn’t even work), but she honestly didn’t know if there would be somewhere safe for her ever again.

 

If Ray left her and went back to legends without her Nora knew that Director Sharpe wouldn’t want to give up the search. she would continued to be followed from place to place and it was going to be only a matter of time, and next time she was caught it would not be with such a cushy offer. It wouldn’t be Ray smiling at her, giving her a choice, it would be mindless agents armed with handcuffs.

 

Even though this wasn’t ideal, having the Time Breathing down her neck and probably never letting her leave the Waverider, it might as well be paradise compared to life in a jail cell. And she figured, well more like knew, that there were worse people to spend what would probably be the rest of her life with than Ray Palmer.

 

So she shrugged. “Eh, what the hell.”

 

Rays eyes lit up more than she had ever seen and she could remember the last time someone looked at her like that. She’s also not so sure it’s something she’s going to get used to.

 

A goofy smile stayed plastered to his face as he go on the comms. “Z, she’s coming back.”

 

“Good,” the voice came back out of breath. “Things have gotten a little dicey over here. Just meet me at the jump ship” The sound of glass shattering crackled through the speakers. “Looks like someone's noticed the missing cash.”

 

Rays eyes widened as they landed on the burlap sack Nora was still holding, forgotten and unnoticed in the commotion of the impromptu meeting.

 

“What do we do with it?” she asked.

 

Ray carefully took it out of her hands. “I would say give it back because you stole it, but they are criminals too.” Nora could tell that he was weighing the options of what to do.

 

And then he threw it and ran.

 

“What the hell was that!” Nora yelled as she ran forward to keep up with him.

 

“I panicked!”

 

He grabbed her wrist as he led her through alleys and beat up trails.

 

Oh God, she hoped this wasn't a mistake.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> leave kudos and comments if you like it!!! :)))


End file.
